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Shifting the NarrativeI can be a difficult student. My best teachers gave me lots of space. I’ve had to learn lessons for myself, which is the long way around. Doing so, however, taught me how I best learn. We teach kids content, but not necessarily how to understand the way their minds work. My stubbornness has faded some over the years. As I’ve pursued different sustainability-focused innovation projects, the imperative to assert less, and listen and learn more has become increasingly clear. It’s also easier. The narrative in my head often matters much less than what I’m hearing from those with whom I’m working, whether in the role of consultant or teacher. My job isn’t to necessarily assert what I think, but to help others build capacity by identifying useful connections based on their understandings. On more than one occasion, my proclivity for judging has almost derailed a key development. Too often I can jump from hearing something to dismissing it. Smart people can be really dumb this way. The older I get, the more I realize that the more I’m able to tune in, the smarter I am. Superior intelligence is collective. As I assert to my staff when asked to singularly solve a problem: I don’t know the best answer, but we probably do.